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The Salvation Army partners with The Giving Machine in Roseville to invite shoppers to support local families and neighbors in need during the holiday season.
While Salvation Army bell ringers are a familiar sight during the holiday shopping season, shoppers at the Westfield Galleria in Roseville, California, encountered a bright red vending machine inviting them to give, rather than receive. Known as The Giving Machine, the interactive display offered a unique way to support local charities, including The Salvation Army in Sacramento and Roseville, during the mall’s busiest time of year.
The Giving Machine, established in 2017, is a charitable endeavor that is part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (LDS) Light the World campaign.
“Light the World is basically an invitation to transform the Christmas and holiday time into a season of service,” said Becca Stephenson, Executive Committee Member for The Giving Machine in the Greater Sacramento area. “It’s a worldwide movement to be able to touch hearts and change lives by basically helping feed the hungry, comforting the lonely, visiting the sick and afflicted, and showing kindness to everyone…The Giving Machine became a popular and really a visible piece of Light the World.”
When The Giving Machine first launched, it started as a social experiment in New York City. They installed two vending machines—one with traditional items, such as snacks, that displayed the message “Get,” and another with cards offering opportunities to donate to various charities, displaying the message “Give.”
“People just overwhelmingly chose to give rather than to get,” Stephenson said. “After that short time in New York City, they actually thought, ‘We need to probably see how this would do in the world.’”
The vending machines are now installed in 131 cities across 21 countries, including Roseville, where it has appeared annually since 2022. This is the first year that Salvation Army locations in the Del Oro Division were selected as featured nonprofit organizations in the machine in Roseville, which was installed at the mall from Nov. 17 to Dec. 8.
“The Giving Machine is an LDS initiative to really bring the community together and make them aware of all of the resources that are available and really spark an opportunity for the public to respond to community need,” said Major Peter Pemberton, Salvation Army Sacramento County Coordinator. “It’s a beautiful endeavor together.”
Stephenson said The Salvation Army was selected for The Giving Machine in Roseville this year because of its existing partnership throughout the year. And the Army’s mission aligned with the initiative’s goals, with its community services, family and youth programming, and disaster relief efforts.
The vending machine featured cards listing a variety of services and programs at different donation amounts that people could support at The Salvation Army. This included options like $10 to help fund a Christmas dinner, $25 to support youth summer camps, $25 to gift a wrapped Christmas present, $75 to help provide food boxes, and $150 to contribute toward its workforce development program. All donations made to The Salvation Army will be distributed between its Sacramento and Roseville locations.
Donors selected what they wanted to donate in the machine, paid digitally, and 100 percent of the proceeds went to the participating organizations.
“People will give for the things that are personal to them, the things that speak to their hearts. And so The Giving Machine offers an opportunity to reach every person on a personal level,” Pemberton said.
He recalled that one woman approached the machine and saw she could buy a baby goat for a family in Africa through one of the other featured charities. This option resonated with her because growing up, she had goats that provided milk for her family.
“That spoke to her in a deep, meaningful way. Now, why is that important? If we just give opportunities for people to give, but we don’t pare that down and explain exactly what that goes to, it may never reach that person on a personal level,” Pemberton said. “It is powerful that The Giving Machine creates opportunity to reach people on a personal, individual level, speak into their heart, and prompt them to support someone in a similar way that maybe they were supported when they were younger or during a time of need in their own life.”
For The Salvation Army, in particular, it was important to provide opportunities to give at a local level during a time of year when people need it most.
“The reality is that many of our community members are faced with very hard decisions during the holidays. Some of them are faced with whether or not they put a proper meal on the table for their family, whether or not they put gifts under the tree for their children, or whether or not they fill prescription medication that they desperately need,” Pemberton said. “We don’t want parents to have to decide whether or not they fill a prescription or put a gift under the tree … They should be able to give their children a proper Christmas and take care of themselves. So these initiatives really come together to alleviate those things.”
Beyond donations, Pemberton believes The Giving Machine gives the general public more visibility into the need that exists at the local and global level and the causes they can support.
“It certainly helps promote awareness for what we do and what we offer. It also promotes awareness to the community that there are people in your own neighborhood that are in need,” Pemberton said. “Sometimes we tend to turn a blind eye toward that. If we don’t recognize it, it’s not real in our lives. This is an opportunity to share the reality that some of our neighbors aren’t in as good a financial position as we are, but it also really gets the organizations on the community’s radar.”
Reasons like this are why the LDS church decided to use The Giving Machine to support charities.
“Outside agencies are in the community. They are working with the people to have the greatest impact,” Stephenson said. “I think that the church realized that that’s why we need to partner with those who are doing the most good.”
Pemberton echoed the importance of partnering and coming together to help those who need it.
“We’re just stronger together…We can move the needle more greatly if we attack poverty, if we attack homelessness, and if we attack addiction together,” Pemberton said. “It doesn’t mean that we have to agree theologically on every issue, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t put aside theological differences and work for the betterment of our communities and collaboration.”
Do Good:
- Join us in giving joy to families who are experiencing poverty, hunger, job loss and more. Your generosity offers joyful reassurance that even during our most challenging times, we are not alone.
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